It Is [Portal 2 Fanfic]

From

Chell felt a great many things as she stumbled out of the warehouse, with one feeling shining brighter than all others. It was strong sense of pride. Pride for all she had done, and pride for the things she had still to do. There are infinite opportunities for her that exist now only because she made them, despite her circumstances. Chell was tough, and she knew it, but she could feel. For herself and for others. So as for the case of the maniacal killing machine known as GLaDOS, she felt pride. Chell got the best of that hunk of metal. Chell got the best of Aperture.

And now it was finally, finally, all behind her. Forever and ever. Another part of Chell wanted to believe otherwise though. A never ending wheat field had a lot of meaning to Chell now.

It's a wheat field as far as the eye can see, perfect for a simulation of sorts. You can't possibly think that a once in a lifetime traumatic experience like that is over after a stupid 'just go'

She knew the voice was wrong in her gut. And if she knows anything at all, she knows to listen to it. So she did.

She sat down next to her companion cube.

Chell took a minute to think about how she would react if this wasn't real and the wheat field really was another GLaDOS mind game. Maybe she would've broken down the door to the warehouse and taken the escape lift back down.

'That doesn't sound right at all', she thought to herself calmly. Then something occured to her. Not only had she formed GLaDOS, but she herself had also been formed, by this experience. She was able to feel things she would've otherwise bottled up and saved for later had she still been in the facility. Her personality isn't what it was before.

'Weird,' she thought.

Chell decided she was glad she took time to reflect. She knew it was healthy for her. She then decided her time for reflecting had expired, and her time for standing up and shifting gears had begun.

'But first,' she thought, 'what the hell do I do with this cube'.

Chell almost felt stupid for getting stumped by such a simple-on-paper sort of predicament. But it was a predicament, indeed. She didn't want to just leave it there. In fact, she kind of wanted to take it with her, to wherever she was going, as a trophy of sorts. But then there rose the problem of 'why-the-hell-would-anyone-carry-a-huge-metalic-cube-with-a-heart-on-it-in-public.' Not to mention the field that stretches for miles on top of miles. Those things are heavy, and that wheat field looks ruthless.

After some short thought experiments, Chell decided to leave the beloved cube there at Aperture. For two reasons. One, it could be a tracking device, and two, it's just not worth the weight. The memory of when she conquered the dungeon of Aperture will always be with her, and she figured that was trophy enough.

And with that, Chell, destroyer of petty supercomputers, slayer of annoying metal balls, was on her merry way.

{~}

A small, faded, cracked light shone out onto the cosmos. Stranded there by fate.  Isolated. Stripped of hope. Wheatley was crushed beneath the stains of time, beneath the stormcloud known as regret, and finally, beneath himself. The reminiscence of Aperture constantly causing his metaphorical head to spin, he was left with nothing. Literally, nothing.

He hated the change. He knew it was for the best, but he hated it. Being knocked out of your own alter ego by a mechanical claw and then watching your world disappear in an instant as your only companion in the god-knows-how-many years you've been alive decides she's better off without you is simply too much for Wheatley's processors.

In one moment, you have the whole database of human knowledge at your fingertips and a whole facility to interact with, and the next you've got nothing. Nothing at all.

Nothing but memories. Shattered memories, scattered about in a disorganised cespool somewhere in his memory banks. Each of them without color, but still with meaning.

...They told me this wasn't fun at all, so i said to myself 'its not fun at all' but I'm loving this! I'm having a whale of time...

A cold, shivery sigh escaped his frame.

What he hated most was that he knew what he had done wrong, and he decided to proceed. The power drove him over the edge.

"AARRGH!!" Wheatley let out a genuine scream out of pure anger toward himself.

He knew his shell would give in to the cold sooner or later. Would it make a difference, really? Wheatley was dead. Dead to everyone, dead to himself. His name holds no significance anymore. There's no point. No point to living, no point to thinking, no point to anything for him. But his empty shell is still swayed throughout the cosmos, against his will.

'This is it,' he thought, lifelessly, 'This really is the end of the line for me, isn't it?'

All of the energy he possessed left him at that moment.

This is death.

~

W

ARNING. IDS #3A72, YOU ARE 9999999 KILOMETERS AWAY FROM YOUR HOST. SAY YES IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEND OUT A DISTRESS SIGNAL.

"Wh-YES! YES!" He cried. "Ohmygodohmygod. I really thought I was done for, didn't I? Ahaha! Wheatley's still got it. I oughta scratch that off the bucket list. Visited space. Check. It was nothing really. Minor emotional scarring, came back in one piece. I can already imagine the look on her face. Sure to be priceless."

SEND DISTRESS SIGNAL TO GENETIC LIFEFORM AND DISK OPERATING SYSTEM#4492? [Y/N]

"Uhhh..."

[N]

SEND DISTRESS SIGNAL TO #1498? [Y/N]

Wheatley had just been faced with the toughest decision of his life.

........

[Y]

DISTRESS SIGNAL SENT

{~}

So far, Chell had discovered a lot of new things about the world. For example, wheat is really freaking stupid. What does it even do? Just sit there, acting all entitled? Chell figured that if wheat could talk, it would say something like "Look at me, I'm such a great plant, everyone loves me."

In fact, just thinking about it made her tear a clump of it right out of the ground just to prove her point.

"Look at me, I'm the best plant there is. Here, let me inconvenience you and drive you wild just by existing."

"You didn't think you were the first, did you? Ahaha, no fifth. No, I lied. Sixth."

What an annoying, stupid, talkative, back-stabbing plant wheat is.

Chell had literally no sense of time anymore, but she did know that it was getting dark. And the abundancy of the wheat in front of her was still unwavering. Naturally, she assumed that was a bad thing, so she picked up the pace.

About 20-30 minutes later, she finally made it to land. Land without wheat, that is. She allowed herself to smile for the first time in ages.

'This is it.'

'The world starts here.'